A white Greensboro apartment manager is being sued following her assault on a Black 11-year-old boy at the apartment swimming pool. The incident, which was caught on security camera and went viral on social media, has prompted national attention.
In the video, the boy, Jace Lee-Eury stands motionless as 62-year-old Sedgefield Gardens apartment complex manager Kimberly Jennings pours soda on his head and hits him twice in the face. At a press conference Tuesday, lawyers representing the family claimed that Jennings had previously assaulted Lee-Eury’s 8-year-old sister and that she used racial slurs. During that same altercation, her brother allegedly splashed water at Jennings in defense.
Greensboro attorney Jason Keith represents the family along with national civil rights attorneys Ben Crump, who was not in attendance, and Harry Daniels who addressed the media.
"We do a lot of cases around the nation. But one thing — we’re not going to stand for when you mess with our children," said Daniels. "And today is a day of reckoning and justice not only for the Lee-Eury family, but for all families who have been subjected to injustice and mistreatment, and — call it for what it is Jason — racism."
National religious and civil rights leader Reverend William Barber recently spoke out in support of the two children and their parents. According to the legal team, Jennings is pending prosecution in Guilford County for two counts of simple assault of a child under 12. The federal lawsuit, filed in the middle district of North Carolina, claims discrimination on the grounds of race, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery.